“Holy shit,” Cam uttered aloud, expressing her thoughts on behalf of the rest of the team.
“There’s no way she’s been sleeping,” said Bear. “Or there are half a dozen Jackals workin’ ’round the clock.”
“Hi, everybody,” she greeted from the other end of the room. She immediately turned her attention to Gunner. “I told you this ER would be complicated.”
“No kidding.” He turned to Cam and Bear. “Crazy, right?”
“Is all of this based on what you learned from von Zwick’s research?” asked Cam.
“Yes. Plus what we’ve uncovered on our own. I’ll be modifying this throughout the day as we meet with Kala and Harper. Everything you add to the discussion will be included.”
Gunner shook his head in disbelief. “How the hell are we supposed to make sense of this?”
They all paused their conversation to take in their surroundings. Except for three audio-visual monitors mounted on the wall behind Jackal, the entire room was covered with photos, copies of newspaper clippings, maps, and dossiers interconnected by red yarn-like string held in place by white pushpins. Lending the appearance of a hub-and-spoke visual display, there were several places where a single white sheet of copy paper with a large black question mark appeared in the middle. Many strings led to the pages indicating the unknown.
Jackal addressed these pages first. “You can’t help but notice that we have a lot of blanks to fill in. Some of that will occur today with our guests. The rest can only be done through further investigation and field research. I will say that we know exponentially more thanks to your efforts than we did before you left for Berlin. Professor von Zwick was incredibly thorough with what he had to work with.”
“What about the U-boat?”
Jackal paused before responding. She’d just received a text message on her phone. She held the device up in the air. “As a matter of fact, that’s security. She arrived early, so I need to step out to escort her through the building. I’ll let her explain when she arrives.”
While Jackal was away, Gunner asked Ghost if there was any new news from the FBI investigation in Azerbaijan. Ghost provided the team the details on how the attack had been carried out. They’d also confirmed the identity of the Middle Easterner involved whose body had been found dead in the utility room. Amir Azizov was a known mercenary whose nationality was formally listed as Azerbaijani although his parents were both of Turkish descent. He’d worked for numerous terrorist organizations around the world, including Hamas during a brief stint in Gaza. However, Ghost was not willing to agree with the bureau’s conclusion that he was acting on behalf of Hamas or Tehran in any capacity.
Jackal returned with Professor Bale, who exchanged greetings with the group. Everyone got settled around a long conference table that Jackal had been using as a work desk. She cleaned it off to make room for everyone to look at materials as they were passed around. Ghost had secured a security clearance for Professor Bale so she could be privy to the entire research compiled by the Den. Having access to the resources enabled the professor to reach her conclusions much sooner than expected.
Professor Bale took the floor, first handing out packets of materials to everyone in attendance. The materials included vintage photographs of U-boats and their pens located along the Atlantic Seaboard of Europe.
“By my count, there appear to be around fifty German U-boats that remain unaccounted for. In the late seventies, Navy officials took the position that unless a U-boat like the one discovered in the Puerto Rico trench happens to show up, they were no longer going to actively search for the wreckage.
“That position didn’t change even with the discovery of U-869, dubbed U-who, sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey in 1991. It took six years and numerous dives to the site, including missions that resulted in the deaths of three divers, before the submerged wreckage was positively ID’d. This particular wreckage was interesting because prior to its discovery, it was reportedly sunk off the coast of Gibraltar in February of ’45.”
Bear laughed. “Somebody missed that call.”
“There might be a logical explanation, Bear,” said Professor Bale as she continued. “While German Navy documents were detailed in their description of where submarines had been upon return, the technology of the day did not allow for the accurate tracking of where they went. Radio communications were often brief, done in short spurts to avoid detection. Most records of activities came from logs kept on the ship.
“That brings me to the fifty subs unaccounted for. The paperwork made available to me reveals the areas where they were officially assigned, but there’s no way to know if they actually remained there. As the war began to wind down, recordkeeping became sketchy, and any secretive, off-the-books missions weren’t recorded. However, through a stroke of luck, an identifying mark on this U-boat managed to survive many years of wear and tear from the surrounding ocean.”
Professor Bale pointed to the logo depicted in the photos taken by the submersibles. “You are looking at an actual photo of der lachende Schwertfisch, the laughing swordfish, that I believe Dr. Li previously identified.”
“That’s right,” said Bear.
“Through our research, I’ve been able to confirm that this symbol was assigned to a specific U-boat stationed at the 11th Flotilla in Bergen, Norway, known as Bunker Bruno. Its designation was U-1226.
“Here’s what’s interesting about U-1226. We have records indicating this Type IXC was dispatched from Bunker Bruno with a relatively unseasoned, inexperienced captain at the helm named Claussen. Only days after it departed on its patrol mission in the North Atlantic, it reported a malfunction its schnorchel, a U-boat’s
